Vaticanism

[vat-i-kuh-niz-uhm]

noun

Usually Disparaging.

1. the doctrine of the absolute supremacy of the pope.

Vaticanism

/ ˈvætɪkəˌnɪzəm /

noun

1. derogatory,  the authority and policies of the Pope and the papal curia, esp with regard to papal infallibility

Other Word Forms

• Vaticanist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of Vaticanism¹

First recorded in 1870–75; Vatican + -ism

Example Sentences

If he has time for anything else, I hope he has read La Belgique et le Vatican, the volume published by Frere-Orban, the Belgian Minister, a weighty study of Vaticanism.

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Hating Ultramontanism and Vaticanism as only a passionate believer in the Church which they disfigured could hate them, cherishing the right of private judgment within the widest limits which Rome had ever allowed, he died, as he was baptized, in the faith of his ancestors.

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Mr. Gladstone returned to the charge in a pamphlet entitled ‘Vaticanism,’ in which he contended that in theory the Papal Infallibility was inconsistent with the requirements of civil allegiance. 

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He strongly opposed the papal-infallibility movement, and took the side of Mr. Gladstone in his attacks on Vaticanism.

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Whether the excitement in the country was more than superficial; whether most readers fathomed the deep issues as they stood, not between catholic and protestant, but between catholic and catholic within the fold; whether in fastening upon the civil allegiance of English Romanists Mr. Gladstone took the true point against Vaticanism—these are questions that we need not here discuss.

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